Celje, Church of St. Daniel (sv. Danijel)

The main church in Celje, the Abbey Church, stands at the south-eastern edge, in the core of the medieval town. As a three-naved aisled basilica with flat ceiling and a nun's gallery it was erected around 1306 on the location of the church from the 12th century. After 1379 cross vaulting was done in Gothic style and the bell tower and presbytery were rebuilt. By the middle of the 16th century the church had obtained its present shape via numerous rebuilding projects.

Probably in the year 1413 or slightly earlier, the Chapel of the Sorrowful Mother of God was built by the north side of the presbytery (it was constructed as a chapel of the Magi), which is an exceptionally high-quality example of so-called classical Gothic architecture. It is a unified three-sided concluded Gothic area with four sets of cross vaulting. It is divided by shafts, richer consoles and stone baldachins by the walls. Statues on the consoles are newer. The painted ceiling with depictions of the Mercy Throne and different symbols of the evangelists, the church fathers, and Arma Christi originates from the same time. On the altar stands a Gothic pieta (around 1400).

The ceiling of the church nave and the long choir loft are painted in a soft Gothic style of the 15th century. Older frescos in the presbytery have been renovated; the oldest fragment with Christ is from the middle of the 14th century. An interesting feature are the poorly preserved images depicting the journey and adoration of the Magi, which experts have attributed to a circle of artists from Selo in Prekmurje (1410). The frescos of the Pisani Master from Istria and others fresco painters can be found as well. In the Baroque period, the Chapel of St. Francis Ksaveri was added to the church. The altar for it was designed by Ferdinand Gallo (1769). Some of the documented church paintings were done by Frančišek Jelovšek (around the year 1743), and the pulpit by Mihael Rosenberger in 1851. After 1858 the church was remade in the Gothic style. When it was renovated in 1963, the church and the Chapel of the Sorrowful Mother of God had stained glass windows added by Stane Kregar.

In the building and its outer walls there are several plastically designed medieval and Renaissance tombstones from the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries built in. In front of the main entrance to the church, a monument to the blessed Bishop Anton Martin Slomšek (sculptor Karla Bulovec, cast by Momo Vuković) was unveiled in 1996.